FAQ

I’m not really into gambling nor feel the need to awaken your subconscious desire to gamble. I will leave that to the big companies.

2. Will Dead Monarchy have DLC?

I’m not sure what DLC stands for, do you mean to nickle and Dime Loyal Customers? If so, no thanks. I’m also a player and this practice has affected some of my favorite games quite negatively. Expansions yes, DLC no, occasionally I plan to release small and FREE packs of armors and weapons.

3. Do you plan to do Kickstarter?

I’m a one man team so putting together a successful kickstarter would take up a lot of time, time taken away from actual development. I currently cannot work on this full-time as I need to cover my basic living expenses. Aside from the logistical side of kickstarting, I don’t feel like I deserve to kickstart as Dead Monarchy is my first game. There have been a lot of failed kickstarters, so I can understand if backers are skeptical, I backed a few games as well and unfortunately not all of them kept their promises.

I plan to go into Early Access on steam as a way to fund my development on Dead Monarchy. However, I am releasing a demo prior to that to give potential players a look at how the game plays. If the demo goes well then I hope it will give players more confidence in supporting Dead Monarchy.

4. How long will Early Access be and how much?

Early access version will be $20 USD. I plan to continually work on Dead Monarchy for up to 10 years as I foresee that time frame being the most realistic amount of time I need to achieve what I want to set out in Dead Monarchy. Dead Monarchy will probably come out of EA before that, but I want to make it clear that I will support this game for years. Why? Because it is the only game I play now.

There will be two modes in Dead Monarchy. Tourney Mode (Survival) and Monarchy Mode. Tourney mode is focused on combat with minor base management and survival mechanics. It is also what will be initially available in the EA version. Combat won’t just be restricted to the tournament grounds unlike the demo.

Depending on how well EA turns out, eventually when Tourney Mode is done, I will begin transferring all the features of Tourney Mode into Monarchy Mode. Tournament combat is only one type of combat, field battles are another type of combat and focus more on formations. Tournament combat is chaotic and has faster engagement times. Field battles can get chaotic, but the ebb and flow of combat is also determined by positioning.

In short, tournament combat will be a side activity in Monarchy Mode, but in Tournament Mode it takes center stage. TM is easier for me to develop as a one man team with the limited free time I have but it is no means shallow. There will still be lots to do in TM.

5. How long has Dead Monarchy been in development?

Dead Monarchy has been in development for close to 3 years now, however it has been a dream of mine that I have been chasing since I was 14. There was a certain feeling that I only experienced once after playing a certain game and I was never able to fully capture it again.

6. You’re a Chinese developer, should I be skeptical?

I’m not racist or self-hating, I swear. However, as a gamer born in Australia and raised predominately on Western games, I do know that unfortunately some Chinese developers have questionable practices all in the name of profit. I’m not like that, I am first and foremost creating a game I want to play myself. Basically, I’m a junkie and there’s a high I need to catch again.

7. I’ve noticed some of the things like animations on the Unity asset store, is this an asset flip?

For one person to create every single aspect of the game from scratch is more or less impossible, the other thing is the pricing of the game isn’t set to something like $60 USD. It is also the reason why development for Dead Monarchy has been entirely self-funded as opposed to going on kickstarter, asking 50K for improved animations and then spending $50 on an animation set. That said, the majority of the armor models in Dead Monarchy are custom and exclusive to the game, which is where the majority of the budget has gone into. Eventually when the game starts to really take off, I will eventually go about replacing the Unity assets. The other “flip side” to this argument, is that if there is say a weapon pack on the store that fits within the aesthetic of Dead Monarchy if I release it as a singular weapon pack, I won’t be charging for it. It’ll be a gift from me to you and way to support asset developers. Prices for custom models start to really rack up, it can cost up to $1000 USD per model when you considering rigging and animation, so there is always a balancing meta-game going on. All in all, I’ve said from the start that I aim for as much transparency between myself and the gamer, since at the end of the day, I’m a gamer too.